Now Playing: Twitter Bullies of Broadway

This post is not about the foodboom but these are strange times.

Just two days after Vice President elect Mike Pence got booed and lectured while attending the Broadway musical Hamilton, Donald Trump is tweeting again.This time he is demanding an apology from the show and Brandon Victor Dixon the actor who gave what appears to be a polite dressing down to Pence for his persistent hardline against LGBT rights and insensitivities to minorities and immigrants.

What we are seeing here is unprecedented on both the accounts of the impending Trump presidency and the cast of Hamilton representing the musical theater world and the larger group of New York City traditional Democrats and Liberals.

Pence’s attendance at a Broadway musical in New York- where the Trump/Pence ticket received less than 20% of the vote- is like a walk into the lion’s den.

New York City 2016 Election Results

Clinton

Trump

Brooklyn

595,086

133,653

Queens

473,389

138,550

Manhattan

515,481

58,935

Bronx

318,403

34,424

Staten Island

67,561

95,612

1,969,920

461,174

81.03%

18.97%

(source: New York State Board of Elections)

But this is bad news for theatergoers and perhaps for the larger issues of free speech. Any public figure may receive applause or booing while attending a public event. While it is not uncommon for cast members to acknowledge a politician or head of state at the end of the show such acknowledgements are usually polite and banal. There is the presumption that one can attend an event without bringing up politics. Pence after all has a right to enjoy the show.

Right now we are indeed a divided country and Trump should hold up on the bullying via twitter. We need to remember a night at the theater on April 14, 1864 when another actor expressed his views in the most violent form.